


Easter Bunnies

by sweetpeapoppy



Category: Formula 1 RPF
Genre: M/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-01
Updated: 2018-04-01
Packaged: 2019-04-16 19:13:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14171637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetpeapoppy/pseuds/sweetpeapoppy
Summary: Fernando takes his nephew to meet the Easter Bunny.





	Easter Bunnies

“Are going to see Easter Bunny?”

No.”

“But is Easter, maybe we find some chocolate eggs?” He couldn’t feel anymore out of his depth if he tried.

“No.”

All he had to do was look after his nephew for one day, his sister had been called into work for an emergency surgery, and he was called upon for uncle duties. He loved his little nephew, but he’d never done a whole day on his own before, and he was already close to hyperventilating. “Please.”

“No, is stupid.”

“Is not, I always went to see.” His little face began to crease up and Fernando realised that it wasn’t anything to do with him, he was missing his mama. “Is okay, maybe we go for a little bit? Then when mama comes home, we can tell her about it.” She was firm on him not missing a second of it.

“I want mama.”

“I know, but you have your uncle today. Maybe we can find something for mama?” He was getting nowhere, all he had for his troubles was a very pouty boy. “Maybe we start with breakfast?”

“No.”

Ignoring him, Fernando made a show of picking the naughty cereal, it was full of sugar and chocolate, and seemingly enough to perk his nephew up to the point of agreeing to eat. But to balance it out, Fernando made him eat an orange too, his sister insisted on fruit for breakfast, but she never said it was the only thing he was supposed to eat.

Fernando joined in on the cereal front and found himself enjoying the incredibly unhealthy concoction.

“Why are you laughing?”

“Because I never eat fun food like this, is nice to be different.” It might have been a sugar high, but it was enough to get his nephew to smile a tiny bit, so he tried again. “Well I want to see the Easter Bunny, so maybe I go and find some eggs and you watch me eat them?”

“I can stay here?”

“No way!” Fernando laughed as he slung an arm around his shoulders. “We go, and I knew we have some fun. I know I am not your mama, but she wants you to have fun, we can send her some photos.”

“Um, okay.”

“And maybe we can see if we can call her?”

“Yes please!”

Fernando sent a text asking her to call if it was convenient with a promise that it was nothing to be worried about, so he was surprised to see her calling. “Hey!”

“I wanted to see how my boys are doing.” She was glad when Fernando sent the message because it gave her the perfect excuse to make the phone call she’d been wanting to do. 

“Hi mama!”

“Hello my favourite little man, what are going to do today?”

“Are going to see the Easter Bunny.” He really wanted to do it with mama.

He sounded a little down. “Am sorry I can’t be there, but someone at the hospital needs my help.”

“Mama magic.”

“Oh baby boy, I’ll make it up to you.” She felt so guilty for having to leave him after promising she had the day off.

“Is okay mama, I have you forever!”

Fernando couldn’t help but feel emotional, he’d heard Lorena say that to his nephew over and over. It was her own unique way to reassure him that she would always be there for him. “So we’re going to ask the Easter Bunny if there is a special egg for mama, aren’t we?”

“Yes!”

“Now you look after each other, and I’ll see you later. Love you both.” She had been a bit apprehensive about letting her little brother look after her only child, he was in his early twenties, but their parents were away. And she hated the idea of leaving him with friends for such a special event. 

“Love you mama!”

“Love you Lorena.”

Hanging up, Fernando glanced into the rear view mirror to see his nephew looking a lot happier. “I know you’d rather I’d was your mama, but we can try and have some fun.”

“Okay.”

It sounded so much better than the endless no, no, no he was getting earlier in the morning. “Won’t take much longer and we’ll be there.”

“Okay.”

The directions took them to a local farm, one that he and his sister had been taken to by their parents. It was a continuation of a family tradition, one that he really wanted to join in with. Eventually.

“Right then, let’s go find some eggs.” His sister had sent the itinerary for the morning in her typically organised manner, he knew she was nervous about him looking after her son. It looked simple enough, meet the Easter Bunny who set off the egg hunt, there was face painting and egg painting too that she had pre-paid for as well.

It was busy, but not overly so that it didn’t feel special, and pulling out the tickets, he saw that they had a time slot, musing that it was a good idea he handed their over and took the stamp on the back of his hand, a cartoon outline of a rabbit. Smiling down at it he took his nephew’s hand and led him off to start the festivities.

\---

“Wow mate, you got loads of eggs!” His Spanish wasn’t great, and he wondered if putting in ‘mate’ would confuse the kid, but he replied in English, which made him smile because it was proof how bad his Spanish was.

“I do, my uncle helps me find so many.” Now he couldn’t see Fernando.

“Ah, right, which one is your uncle then?” He was trying to keep an eye out for kids that seemed to not be attached to a parent.

“Um.” He was in so much trouble.

“It’s okay if you can’t see him, bet he’s looking for you too.” He tried Spanish again to stop him from panicking. “Let’s find him.”

“Mmm.” He knew he should have waited.

“What’s his name?” He got a couple of mumbles before hearing it properly. “Alright then, let’s find Fernando. What colour top is he wearing?”

“Blue.”

“Oh no, keep your eggs, he’ll wonder where they are.”

“He told me not to walk off.”

“Let’s just find him.” Scouring the area, he focused on the food vendors, he saw a man with two ice creams in his hand just turning around and his eyes going wide in panic. “Is that him there?”

“Yes! Uncle Nano!”

“Where did you go?”

“Um.”

Fernando saw his face go red and knew that he was more than sorry. “Please don’t walk off again, I promised your mama I would keep you safe.” Crouched down, his nephew flung his arms around his neck, and he could feel how sorry he was.

“Ah mate, your eggs!”

“Sorry about him.”

“It’s alright, got to make sure no one gets lost.” Picking up the discarded basket, he helped round them all up and hand them back.

“You can have an egg.”

“Oh no, they’re all for you, the Easter Bunny has saved one for me.” Making sure it went back into his basket.

“Are you friends with the Easter Bunny?”

He looked young enough to get away with a little white lie. “I am, and they were wondering when you were going to get your face painted.”

“I think maybe ice cream first.” Fernando suggested, trying desperately not to meet the eyes of the cute helper.

“Good idea, well when you’re ready, come see me, I’ll make sure you’re next to go.” He was a young uncle, and really cute.

\---

“I want my face painted now!”

“Alright.” Fernando hoped the cute guy was going to keep to his word because there was too much sugar in his nephew to control with disappointment on top. “Let’s go see.”

“Oh, hey, you both ready?”

“Both? Oh no, not me.”

“Owwww.”

“Don’t you worry little man, you’ll both get your faces painted.” He led them over to the tables, he’d already sweet-talked one of guys into doing him a favour. “All you need to do is to choose what you’d both like to be.” Sitting them both down on a couple of chairs, he let his colleague and his fair better skill paint the little boy’s face.

“We are both going to be Easter Bunnies!”

“Excellent choice.”

“So Uncle Nano, being a bunny alright with you?”

“My name is Fernando.”

“Mark.”

“Are from Australia, are a long way from home.” He didn’t realise how close he was going to have to be to him.

“I like travelling.”

“I want to, everywhere. All the time.”

“Sounds like a plan, but right now, you’re going to be a bunny and love it.” Mark grinned as he began to paint Fernando’s face, he had the most beautiful coloured eyes and he was finding it hard to not stare into them.

“Have you done this before?”

“Not really, not officially, I promised not to paint a kid’s face again.”

Fernando laughed. “How bad?”

“They cried.” Mark smiled and paused to let Fernando continue to laugh. “You have a cute laugh.”

“Oh.” He felt his face flash red, the combination of Mark’s compliment and his smile had him feeling weak. “You, um, have, um, a nice smile.” Mark’s eyes went soft, and Fernando found himself giggling out of nerves.

“ _Oh_.”

Mark’s eyes went wide.

Screwing his eyes up to try and reset the situation, Mark tried again. “Stay still, you’ll make a bad job worse.”

“Am not going to be a cute bunny?”

The pretend innocent voice had Mark done. “Maybe not as cute as your nephew.” Switching focus, they both paused to make some fuss over him, which he seemed to enjoy.

“We have to paint eggs next!”

“Just a bit more paint to go first.”

“You can paint with us too Mark.” 

Mark could see Fernando about to jump in to excuse him, but he didn’t want to put him in that position. “I would really like to, but I have to help the Easter Bunny get ready to meet some more boys and girls.”

“Oh, okay.”

He seemed okay. “But how about I take a photo of both of you?”

“Yey! I can show my mama!”

He watched Fernando sweetly pick him up and put him on his lap. “Big smiles!” He took several on Fernando’s phone and handed it back before watching them walk off to the egg painting station together. It would have been a lovely moment save the sniggering from the guy beside him.

“Two minutes with him and you’re in love.”

“Shut up Jenson.”

“No way, go for it. I demand it.” Slapping his lovelorn colleague on the should he pushed to stand up.

“Let me repeat myself, shut up Jenson.”

“I’ll let you know when he’s leaving.” Giving his fellow traveller a playful nudge, Jenson turned to let the next child choose what animal to be.

Even though he actually had to subtly reset the Easter egg hunt, Mark let himself keep an eye on Fernando, he was being really attentive, and the bunny make up kept making him smile to himself. It was a little lopsided, but he carried it off well.

“He’s going.” 

Mark looked up to see he was more than going, but had pretty much gone. But that was part of travelling the world, people were fleeting, temporary.

—-

“Oh, hey, you alright?”

“Uh huh, I think I left my nephew’s jacket here.”

“Alright, we’ve got a lost and found box.” Leading him over to where they were all clearing up, Mark hauled the box into a table so Fernando could look through it. “What did it look like?”

“Red, um, with a white bit on the arms.”

“That’ll be easy to spot.” With both of them rooting through, it was quick to find. “Liked my artwork that much, huh?” Fernando still had the face paint on.

“Oh, he wanted me to keep it on, only realise when I get into my car that his jacket is not there.”

“Should have given you some bunny ears to match.”

“Now I know why they do not want you to do it for the children, you forget such important things!”

“Oi cheeky!” A quick scout around found him a pair, and so Mark quickly put them on his head. “Now you look adorable.”

“I don’t want to be adorable!”

“Believe me, you do.” He did look it, and Mark guessed he could do hot, but cute and adorable was perfect right then. “Not a bad thing.”

“No?”

“Not at all.” Leaning down he pressed a sweet kiss to his lips, glad he kept the face paint off them. Fernando wasn’t hesitant at all, and despite seeming shy he teasing flicked the tip of his tongue against his lips.

“Is a good thing I wear the ears so well.”

—-

“You so did not meet like that!”

“We did! As soon as I put those bunny ears on, he was mine.” He didn’t mind telling the story over and over again to both sets of relatives, they’d both done it at Christmas, the engagement, their wedding, it was a precious story. “And we have to thank Lorena for trusting Fernando with babysitting duties, otherwise we would have never met.” Kissing Fernando’s temple lightly, Mark excused himself to sort out something with the caterers.

“So, won’t be long until you’ll be back at the farm with this little one?” Lorena asked.

Fernando smiled softly down at the newborn in their arms, it was Easter and they had finally been gifted a new addition to their family, a dark haired bundle with the cutest lips and biggest eyes. Their son. “Not long at all.”

Looking back over to Fernando and his sister, he brought up the photo they took not long after their first kiss. A selfie to signal a fun day, but they knew there was something else there, beyond a shared love of travel that had given them their business. Grinning at the smudge of white face paint on his nose, and the mess he’d made of Fernando’s cheek, Mark was glad they chose to go all out on the Easter theme for their welcoming party for their long awaited child.


End file.
